Blu-ray Disc Java is coming this fall, and it may be incompatible with some of today's machines

The most common piece of advice given to those unsure about which
high-definition optical format to buy is to simply wait until a victor emerges.
Early adopters, however, should be aware that being cutting edge could come
with a price, such as the risk of bugs or complete hardware and software obsolescence.

The Blu-ray Disc Association has mandated that all players
of the format released after October 31 must adhere to a specific feature set
that is currently not standard for today’s hardware. All Blu-ray Disc players
after the fall date must support BD Java, a programming language for Blu-ray
Disc media used mainly to deliver picture-in-picture for in-movie commentary
and special features.

“Blu-ray player requirements and BD-Java specifications have
been gradually changed over and over again, which has caused a good amount of
grief for player manufacturers,” said optical storage analyst Wesley Novack. “The new specification and
requirements will ensure that all Blu-ray players manufactured past October
will be able to support the full range of BD-Java capabilities, including picture
in picture and more.”

Early adopters of Blu-ray players may find themselves with
inadequate hardware to support media using BD Java software.

Novack continued, “This might be bad news for early adopters
who have already purchased a player, but it will not prevent them from playing
back future Blu-ray movies. Owners of first generation Blu-ray players will
probably not be able to use the full range of interactive features available on
future Blu-ray Disc titles.”

Owners of current Blu-ray Disc players who are concerned
about the future utility of their hardware are assured by manufacturers that
current players won’t be made completely obsolete with the new standard.

“As is common in new format introductions, future products
will include some additional features such as picture-in-picture,” said Philips
VP Marty Gordon to Video Business.
“Regardless of whether first-generation hardware supports these new features,
the discs will still play.”

Unlike the HD DVD standard, Blu-ray players are not required
to have Ethernet ports for firmware updates. Blu-ray machines with upgradable
firmware likely will have a greater chance of conforming to the mandated format
this fall.

Although HD DVD is not without its own set of early
adopter issues, support for a standard programming language is already
solidified for the format. HDi, an XML-based format developed by Microsoft and
Toshiba, is mandatory on all HD DVD players and enables picture-in-picture
special features to run alongside the feature length film.

Warner Bros. has released titles such as Batman Begins and V for Vendetta for HD DVD but not Blu-ray for the sole reason of
the latter format’s lack of standardization. The upcoming Matrix trilogy release will also
appear on HD DVD first for the same reason. Warner Bros. said that it would
release Blu-ray Disc versions of such films in the fall, assumingly after the
BD Java mandate takes effect.

Paramount has taken a different approach with Blu-ray’s
apparent shortcoming. The studio released Mission:
Impossible 3 on both HD DVD and Blu-ray, though the HD DVD version features
a video picture-in-picture commentary, while the Blu-ray version does only with
audio.

Only a couple Blu-ray movies feature picture-in-picture
commentaries, those titles being Descent
and Crank, though they do so without
BD Java. Cleverly, and perhaps inelegantly, two complete versions of the movie
are stored on a 50GB Blu-ray disc. One version contains the normal version of
the film, while the second one features the picture-in-picture commentary
hard-encoded on top of the film.

The addition of BD Java is not the only new requirement for
Blu-ray players this fall. All players released after October 31 must hold a
minimum 256MB of persistent memory storage. Those with network options will have
to have 1GB of memory to support Web downloads.

Famed DVD producer, Van Ling, expresses discontent over the
lack of standardization of the Blu-ray format. “The whole problem comes in when
some manufacturers toe the minimum line and some others might make twice the
minimum [functionality] on players,” said Ling. “In my view, I shouldn’t have
to know what every single player can do. Rather than downgrade my creative
vision for the lowest common denominator player, I want to create something
[that fully realizes Blu-ray abilities].”

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I actually supported HD DVD for a long time, swore I wouldn't but a Blu Ray player, but with so few new releases, and practically no PC drives Blu Ray has my support. I would imagine that the early adopters, who paid 1k for a player, wouldn't be too aggravated at buying a new player at a third of that oringal price if they had too. This, of course, affects so few people, as most Blu Ray players also double as a PS3 :)

Blu-Ray has more drives you can buy from Newegg. HD DVD has more drives you can buy pre-installed. HP, Samsung, Toshiba --> HD DVD computers. Dell, Sony --> Blu-Ray. Someone check that to make sure.

If I was a BR owner, I'd be royally ticked. HD DVD worked right from the start; Blu-Ray made everybody beta testers and charges twice as much. If not for PS3, Blu-Ray would have sunk like LaserDisc despite having studio support. And, for a fact, you can find HD DVD players less than $300 on the internet. And rumors are circulating that $100 or $200 HD DVD players will be available soon. Granted, they are Wal-Mart cheap brands, but Wal-Mart cheap DVD players made DVD successful. If $200 players come out before Christmas, I believe HD DVD will win. If not, Blu-Ray will win.

Of course, I want a Blu-Ray player, but can't afford even a PS3. I do have the HD DVD add-on for the 360. I am impressed by the stuff HD DVD does that Blu-Ray can't, even with BDJ. Although Blu-Ray has more storage space, HD DVD is the superior technology. Still, I want a Blu-Ray player, but I will always favor HD DVD because it is better.

You can actually flip an HD-DVD disk over, just like DVDs. I don't see that being a serious issue. Very few movies are going to need more then 30GB anyway (which is why so many BlueRay movies are single layer 25GB disks anyway). Those that need it can just have 2 sides.

In the States you usually have 3 Audio Streams in English, French and Spanish. And the English one add Regular channel, 5.1, and now some form of Lossless and that starts taking up some room. In addition to the movie and special features. Movie like LOTR which is bound to have every form of Audio and is almost 3 hours long may be pushing it for 30GB

I have to agree. Multiple languages seem the least likely to cause a problem. Its not hard to have an English/Spanish side and a French/German side (or whatever).

Also, i think its fairly ridiculous to say that lossless will be a factor at all. Consumers don't even know what lossless is. Not saying I approve, but as far as the market is concerned, you could put 256k AC3 tracks on there and 98% of people would never notice. Hell, 98% of current HD-DVD and Bluray buyers wouldn't know the difference as long as they got the right number of channels.

People buying HD-DVD and Blu-Ray now know what lossless is. Why spend 1k on a player and not have the equipment to support lossless? No, I think the early adopters know about lossless, and will want to use it. Neither of these formats are anywhere close to mainstream, so people buying them now know more about what they are jumping into. With that said, it is the reason I use Blu-Ray over my HD-DVD add on for my 360, because the 360 and many HD-DVD titles don't have lossless tracks, while most Blu-Ray movies do. And yes, it makes a very noticeable difference.

And if one can really tell lossless over high rate quality compression in a movie, one REALLY wants direct to disk vinyl, not any of this digital stuff that ruins things inherently to start with anyway.

BetaMax had higher quality... storage space limited, but not the REASON for failure.

Sony killed BetaMax. Their INSISTANCE on using formats that they developed and similarly could license.

The other issue was that they changed formats several times to attempt to keep up with VHS, and this caused TONS of confusion in the marketplace.

The company that has also brought us such wonderful hits as Memorystick, Minidisk, and UMD have brought us another gem in the form of BluRay, once again messing with formats... once again confusing all but those of us that are technology literate.